Monthly Archives: December 2016

Scala

Looking up the Spanish Steps… …to the Trinità dei Monti at the top of the hill (which, weirdly, was entrusted to France until 2006.)Looking back down the Spanish Steps at sunset to the Piazza di Spagna… …and over Rome’s skyline.  The crazy angles and … Continue reading

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Fontana

The famous Trevi fountain was completed in 1762 but has a much longer, more complicated history.  Trevi or “tre vie” was the junction of three roads at the end of the ancient Roman aqueduct of Acqua Vergine named, according to legend, for … Continue reading

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Colonna

Ancient Romans liked victory columns even more than they liked Egyptian obelisks.  This one is the Column of Marcus Aurelius to commemorate the Macromannic Wars along the Danube at the northeastern European border of the Roman Empire. It was during this campaign … Continue reading

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Sorpresa

Aside from the graffiti, the biggest surprises about Rome have been: Seagulls.  It makes sense, Rome being so close to the sea, but I never realized how many seagulls were flying around and shitting on ancient Roman statues and buildings. Obelisks. … Continue reading

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Onnipresente

Every three meters in Rome, you can’t help tripping over ancient ruins. Winding my way back from the Vatican through the ancient Campus Martius, I stumbled upon the Largo di Torre Argentina.

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Ingegno

I visited the Vatican Museum after St. Peter’s Basilisk, seen here looking back at the dome. This place is fucking ridiculous.  Every inch — floor to ceiling — is crammed with ancient, medieval, and Renaissance artwork.  I did, however, especially … Continue reading

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Gigante

I was amused to find that the Italian title of The BFG is Il GGG. No word if they offer a white giant discount.

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Opulento

St. Peter’s Basilisk is one of the largest and most sacred churches in the two thousand year history of Christianity.  And it is ornate as fuck. This is Michelangelo‘s famous Pietà.  Its clunky, trapezoidal shape doesn’t have the stately contrapposto … Continue reading

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Braccia

I never realized that Vatican City is on the “Pudong” side of the river, opposite of ancient Rome.  I took the Metro under the Tiber and walked to St. Peter’s Square.  Bit of a misnomer as it is more of … Continue reading

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Simmetria

More symmetry with the beginning and end of my Chinese adventure:  this was the Lego exhibit I saw in Boston right before I moved to Shanghai.

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Melodrammatico

You simply don’t know passion until you’ve watched Titanic dubbed in Italian.

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Stellari

An hour after getting out of the airport, I was checked in to my hotel.  An hour after that, I was watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.   (It seems to have become something of an annual tradition to leave … Continue reading

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Accogliente

I checked in to the Hotel Barocco off the Piazza Barberini on Quirinal Hill, the northernmost and tallest of the Seven Hills of Rome (and may have been the home of the Sabines as in “The Rape of the Sabine Women” Sabines.) Cozy … Continue reading

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Graffito

From the streets, the first thing that struck me about Rome was the amount of graffiti everywhere.  Almost like there was an engaged populace who valued expression — even unpopular political expression — and wasn’t deathly afraid of governmental reprisal.

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Alto

Overlooking the Alps as I fly south from Amsterdam to Rome. Looking out over Rome into the mist at the Apennine Mountains.  (Some linguists believe the “pen” in “Apennine” is related to the Celtic “ben” for “mountain.”) Clearly I’ve been warped … Continue reading

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